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Friday, November 19, 2010

National Homebrewers Conference: Locations Over the Years

Something got me thinking the other day about the history of where the National Homebrewers Conference (NHC) has been located over the last decade or so. Mostly for curiousity, I dug up the information and plotted it out on a map of the US for the fun of it. To add a little more informtion to it, I swapped out the geographical map out for a population density map of the US.

NHC Conference Location vs. US Population Density﻿

While there are many homebrewers who are willing to fly around the country to attend the NHC conference, I would argue that there are many more that would attend if the conference is within driving distance. So the above map gives an idea of whether the yearly conferences doing a good job covering the US population as well as if there are highly populated areas that are being left out.

Of course, the above logic is based on the assumption that the general US population distribution is equivalent to the population distribution of US homebrewers (which may or may not be a valid assumption). And while I may also be a bit biased (being a New Englander), it seems that much of the Eastern Seaboard and the Pacific Northwest have not been getting a lot of love from the national conference.

Obviously a lot more goes into the conference site selection, including a well organized hosting homebrew club, affordable accomodations, and a thriving beer scene. This map was just another way to look at where the conferences have been located and how it relates to population densities. I am sure I am not alone when I say that I am very interested to see where NHC 2012 will be hosted.